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The structure of the extended sheath–tube complex of the type VI secretion system from Vibrio cholerae elucidates the molecular mechanisms by which conformational changes in the sheath enable the inner tube to penetrate target cells.The structure of the extended sheath–tube complex of the type VI secretion system from Vibrio cholerae elucidates the molecular mechanisms by which conformational changes in the sheath enable the inner tube to penetrate target cells.

Infection of the alga Emiliania huxleyi with its virus EhV results in the increased release of extracellular vesicles that impact viral decay and infection, suggesting that EhV exploits these extracellular vesicles for efficient viral infection during algal blooms.

Recombinant proteins based on APOL1 and APOL3 can kill pathogenic Trypanosoma brucei subspecies, including a variant (rPpMUT) that is effective against T.b. gambiense infection in mice, suggesting that it may serve as a therapy against sleeping sickness.

Toxoplasma gondii uses its proteins RON2, RON4 and RON5 to recruit host proteins, including the ESCRT-I components ALIX and TSG101 to the moving junction, a multimolecular structure that enables invasion.

Metagenomic analyses reveal that microbial genomes undergo a community-wide transition in size and GC content across a narrow depth range, indicating that nutrient limitation is a major driver in marine microbial genomic and proteomic evolution.

Isolation of a cyanophage encoding photosystem I genes reveals that these are expressed during infection and inserted into host membranes, resulting in enhanced electron flow, and that phage carrying these genes are abundant in marine environments.

A virulent phage of Streptococcus thermophilus encodes an anti-CRISPR protein that is active against the CRISPR–Cas9 of multiple bacteria and inhibits the SpCas9 system commonly used for genome engineering.

Whether phage genetic mosaicism generates a spectrum of diversity or discrete populations is unclear. Two phage evolutionary modes are described here that differ in the extent of horizontal gene transfer depending on host, lifestyle and genetic constitution

This study reports the structure of hRSV NS1, identifying unique regions that modulate host gene expression and contribute to inhibition of the IFN-I pathway and of dendritic cell maturation, pointing to new avenues of hRSV attenuation.

Metabolic labelling can be used to simultaneously tag peptidoglycan, lipopolysaccharide and capsular polysaccharide of live gut bacteria, and to label peptidoglycan in vivo, revealing host–bacteria interactions within the living mammalian host.

Disruption of a cysteine protease that localizes to the vacuolar compartment of Toxoplasma gondii shows that autophagy is required for the intracellular survival of the parasite during chronic infection.

Vesicular stomatitis virus is shown to establish collective infectious units, enabling virions to enter cells as a group. This is exacerbated in host fluids, decreases virus titre, and could facilitate both viral evolution and antiviral defence.

When faced with hypoxic conditions, Mycobacterium tuberculosis adapts its metabolism to generate intermediates reserved for re-initiation of peptidoglycan biosynthesis that can be used as soon as it is re-exposed to normoxia.

The S-layer structure of C. crescentus is revealed by combining the X-ray crystal structure of an S-layer protein and cryo-ET of cell stalks. The resulting model shows that the S-layer is porous and stabilized by calcium ions.

Diversity-generating retroelements are abundant in the reduced genomes of bacteria and archaea belonging to the CPR and DPANN phyla, driving hypervariability on proteins involved in signalling, transcriptional regulation, attachment and defence.

Crystal structures of the Argonaute protein from the archaeon Methanocaldococcus jannaschii (MjAgo) in its apo state and bound to a guide DNA elucidate the molecular mechanisms that drive DNA-guided DNA silencing in Archaea.